From the monthly archives:

January 2014

The Power of Productive Feedback

January 28, 2014

In elementary school, the good kids got golden stars. In college, they were recognised on the dean’s list, but in the workplace, however, top performers are often deprived of feedback for a job well done. Although some business leaders may argue they do not have resources or time to provide their professionals with performance rewards […]

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30th Anniversary of Apples Macintosh launch

January 24, 2014

In the beginning there was International Business Machines (IBM) and they dominated a business they had practically invented themselves in the 1950s. For them computing was all about corporate mainframes, data and text based terminals. Then thirty years ago today, on January 24, 1984, Apple launched an innovative machine that would revolutionise computing. Two days […]

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New internet data speed record

January 23, 2014

The internet has this week broken another speed record through innovation by testing and proving that 1.4 terabits of data per second can be transferred over existing core fibre infrastructure. The tests were successfully carried out by BT and Alcatel-Lucent on a 410km testbed between London’s iconic BT Telecom Tower and the Adastral Park research […]

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East Sweden Region – the county of Östergötland’s adaptation of RIS3

January 20, 2014

Yesterday I published a brief article about what we mean with RIS3. Today I will tell you a bit about the implementation of RIS3 in the East Sweden Region, where we are working on developing and now implementing smart specialisation since more than one year. Strategic governance and operationalisation There is currently extensive work within […]

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RIS3 – What is it?

January 19, 2014

The Global Financial Crisis It is six years ago now, since the global financial crises hit us. It is considered by many economists the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s and it resulted in the collapse of large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments, and downturns in stock […]

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Regional Development for Growth and Smart Specialisation in East Sweden

January 18, 2014

Strategic governance and virtual cooperation structure to stimulate regional growth The Region of Östergötland in Sweden has for the last few years worked with development and implementation of a new, unique virtual organisation and Quad-helix based cooperation structure for governance and execution of its Regional development plan and Regional innovation strategy. Bearing is in this […]

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The new key duality in the global economy

January 17, 2014

The world economy is to a large extent driven by the economies of United States and China. The growth of the Chinese economy, particularly in the last 20 years, has been staggering. Until recently, much of this growth came from producing labour-intensive, low value-added goods. Today, however, Chinese competitiveness is no longer confined to lower-end […]

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A History of Financial Crises

January 15, 2014

The Economist has published a fascinating brief video, comparing the severity of the history´s financial crises. Enjoy! Les Miserables

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Steps to avoid in the road to success

January 12, 2014

The author of the classic The power of positive thinking, the American motivational speaker Dr. Norman Vincent Peale once said “people become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret to success”. The quote is right at the point, but in […]

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Unleash your inner innovator

January 10, 2014

In the video below, which was published by Financial Times this morning, David Kelley, Founder of the international design firm and innovation consultancy IDEO, and Tom Kelley, author of The Art of Innovation talk with Financial Times Ravi Mattu about a way to tap the creative spirit in us all through design thinking. Design thinking […]

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The Spectre of Deflation in Europe

January 9, 2014

The era of inflation In the 1970s and 1980s most of the world had high inflation. This meant a persistent increase in the general price level of goods and services. The value of money was reduced. In some countries inflation was so high that the citizens’ bank savings, and all ideas of value, were wiped […]

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Consumer Electronics Show – Where consumer technology innovations are launched

January 8, 2014

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has just closed its doors for this year. CES is an internationally renowned electronics and technology annual trade show in Las Vegas, that attracting major companies and industry professionals worldwide. I visited in January ten years ago, in 2004. Over the years, many consumer technology innovations have been launched at […]

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Globalisation in reverse

January 6, 2014

We are still living in the aftermath of the crises. Before the financial crisis the interconnections between countries were growing. Since 2008 both international trade and capital flows have been reduced. One reason for the retreat is the financial crises. Another reason is increased costs of shipping. It currently costs about USD 5000 to ship […]

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50 most innovative companies 2013

January 5, 2014

FAST COMPANY recently announced their ranking of  the most Innovative companies in 2013. The list is compiled for the fifth year and it is a good source of insight into companies who master innovation capabilities. The list is introduced as “Our annual guide to the state of innovation in our economy, featuring the businesses whose […]

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How to deliver a message to an audience

January 3, 2014

When it comes to professional situations the way we speak including pitch, self-confidence, tone, body language and volume, dramatically affects how our audience perceive us. Predominately, however, individuals tend to spend a sufficient amount of time thinking about what to say in business, but not on how to say it. Along with spiders and death, […]

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Top Trends for 2014

January 1, 2014

Happy New Year everyone! The first blog post of 2014 will be about what to expect from the new year. The world is changing faster than ever. We’re connected to each other in ways that would have been thought impossible just a generation ago, enabling enormous potential but also exposing us to great strain. If […]

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